“A Small Place” Writing Assignment
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Read the questions carefully. Then, read first half of A Small Place. Take notes and mark pages / highlight qutoes that will help you answer each question.
Answer the questions, following the instructions carefully.
Provide evidence for each question.
A Small Place Writing Assignment
This is an argumentative essay, in which Jamaica Kincaid makes a strong and poetic attempt to convince her readers. This argumentative essay is told with a very original style of writing, that connects to the genre of testimonio literature we saw in Reyita, and the short story historical fiction we witnessed in Krik? Krak! By Edwidge Danticat.
What you will notice in Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place, is a semi-accessible style of writing, and a very direct style of writing. The writing is also challenging, and loaded. The argumentative essay covers a wide range of history, and global phenomena, and at the same time, it has razor sharp focus on one specific part of the world.
Because this is a challenging text, take the time to do the reading and to discuss the specifics of the text. Answer the questions below taking the text into account.
Keep the questions close to you as you go over the reading.
Do not answer the questions without the reading, and do not answer them without collecting evidence first.
In other words
- read the questions
- read the text
- Take notes/ mark page numbers and quotes for each question.
- Answer the questions, using your quotes and marked pages.
- Look at your answers, and check that your ideas are organized, and clear.
- Proofread your answers to the questions with a spellcheck tool.
Reading questions
1. Write a brief, ten sentence summary of the first half of Jamaica Kincaid’s essay. Summarize by providing ten main points that she makes in this essay. In this brief summary, mention a) specific characters, whether they are fictional or historical, b) specific places in Antigua or other parts of the world, and c) specific moments in Antiguan history.
2. Who is the “you” that Jamaica Kincaid is addressing? Be as specific as possible (don’t just say “the reader”). What reasons might Kincaid have for writing in the second person (“you”) in parts of her book?
3. Explain what Jamaica Kincaid means when she says “all natives are tourists.”
4. How are the people of Antigua still enslaved?
5. According to the author (not your personal opinion), who is more corrupt, the English or the Antiguans? Defend your position. Make references to the text.
6. What is the significance of the library not being restored?
7. Why does the author seem to have so much contempt for tourists? Make references to the text.
8. Explain the significance of the preparations for the princess’ arrival.
9. Explain the detrimental effects to citizens by each government-owned business being occupied by only one organization (i.e. monopoly).
10. Students sometimes complain that Kincaid just seems angry. What effect does her angry tone have on the reader? What purpose might she have for choosing this tone?
11. What is the main argument(s) Kincaid makes in this book? Where does she make this argument most explicit? (Examples with page numbers.)
12. What are the different possible meanings of “small”? Of “place”? How might those different meanings apply to this book? In other words, what are some possible interpretations of the title?
13. Consider each of the answer choices separately and indicate all that apply in a short essay.
Based on the information in the book, with which of the following would Kincaid be likely to agree. Answer in a short essay, and provide sufficient evidence and quotes from the book.
- A government can bring about a degree of corruption abroad that the government itself does not suffer from at home.
- Britain has caused corruption in governments throughout its former colonial empire.
- The British who colonized Antigua were more likely to be corrupt than the general British population.
